Issue with second monitor on KDE

Discussions in English on using Fedora
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#1

Hi, I don’t know if it is the right place to ask or not, but I’ll try anyway.

I own a lenovo thinkpad P1 (2nd gen) where i just installed Fedora 32 KDE and I’m struggling with the second monitor.
I’m not able to make the second screen work properly. I mean, when i plug it on the HDMI port the screen turns on and its well detected, except the screen remains frozen on the first frame and doesn’t update. The only thing that works fine is the mouse pointer, which I can see moving around.
And this behavior doesn’t change either if I set the second monitor as a copy of the primary or as a side extension of the screen.
I don’t know even how to start debugging such issue…

Can anyone suggest me how to proceed?

P.S. I didn’t install nvidia rpm fusion drivers.

1 Like
#2

I solved the problem by installing akmod-nvidia from RPMfusion as suggested here. And for redundancy i also followed steps 4-7 of this guide.

After rebooting the second screen work just fine.

I have to say that i don’t understand why it didn’t work without proprietary driver, since fedora project actually discourages the use of proprietary stuff.
But I’m totally fine with that :slight_smile:

1 Like
#3

I don’t believe fedora project discourages use of proprietary stuff.

What they do is refuse to include and distribute any non-open-source software in the project. What the user does after the OS is installed is then up to the user. The user is free to use anything they choose to add onto the distro, but the project thus cannot be held liable for any possible copyright or patent violations encountered.

Your use of the rpmfusion repo and installation of the proprietary drivers is one of the consequences of the policy that the Fedora Project uses. Things that are necessary because of proprietary hardware (or otherwise), but encumbered with proprietary software, have to be available from somewhere so we can use almost any video card, network card, camera, printer, etc. that we choose. Rpmfusion helps satisfy that need as do many of the hardware manufacturers.

HP, Xerox, Canon, etc. mostly have some proprietary software needed to fully use their printers. Yet with a little bit of extra work all but the very newest of devices are mostly available for use with linux.

Would you want to be limited in what you use simply because the hardware or software is proprietary?
Would you want to have the Fedora Project shut down because of a copyright or patent violation?

The project does not discourage use of proprietary stuff. They just cannot distribute it as part of the OS and thus allow you as the end user to tailor things as you need and see fit.

In the case of nvidia video cards, the hardware is proprietary, the drivers to support them are also proprietary, yet nvidia does directly allow download of the driver software to support their cards on linux. What rpmfusion does is some minor tweaks to ensure everything works for each kernel and then packages the software so the end user is able to download the rpm and install the binary files so it just works. You as the end user thus do not have to twiddle with the sometimes incompatible drivers and maybe even recompile part of what was downloaded from nvidia before your card works.

#4

My comment was way less of a complain on the policy that Fedora project uses rather than a complain on the fact that those thinkpad workstation are going to be (actually already are) delivered with fedora preinstalled in it. And if I were to buy one of those anew I would expect that something such as the secondary display would be working “out of the box” (or at least without the need of secondary repos).

The project does not discourage use of proprietary stuff. They just cannot distribute it as part of the OS and thus allow you as the end user to tailor things as you need and see fit.

Ok, I can understand that saying “disicourages the use of proprietary stuff” might be to strong, but i think that it is also wrong to say that they “cannot” distribute them. In their own website it is clearly stated that they do it by choice, not because of what you are saying.

#5

Yes, they do it by choice, but if you do further research you will find the “why” behind the “choice”. It has clearly been stated in the past why that choice was made.

In fact, the link you provided in the first bullet under the FREEDOM heading says releases that are predictable and 100% legally redistributable for everyone .

That follows the comment about “the effects of proprietary or patent encumbered code” on the project.

Seemingly simple things such as the codec for use of mp3s (which is not available in fedora, although available from other sources) can create an endless and expensive legal battle that would tie up production forever and legal battles can destroy companies quickly due to expense.

The Fedora Project has made a choice to avoid those pitfalls and produces a product most of us love. I suspect that even the companies that make/sell the laptops with fedora already installed also use the vanilla version of fedora to avoid legal issues.